Kitty’s Greatest Hits Read Online Free PDF Page A

with the scent of blood at the same time she saw the spray across the linoleum floor of the entryway before her.
    Wolf’s senses sprang to the fore, the instinct to Change and defend herself ripping through her gut. She swallowed back bile and forced that feeling down, told herself to keep it together, stay human, keep that beast locked away. Her gut clenched, but she didn’t shift.
    Still, she looked over the scene with a hunter’s gaze, and a growl burred in her throat.
    Standing over his prey, the man glanced at Kitty with surprise. He was tall and thin—unnaturally thin, like he hadn’t eaten well in some time. His clothes hung oddly on him. He wore a green canvas jacket, white T-shirt, threadbare jeans. All shone wet with blood. He was covered with red, presumably from his previous two stops. She could smell violence on him, illness, like an animal that had gone out of control, that no longer worked by instinct, but by madness, striking out at everything. His pale eyes gleamed with it. His ear-length hair was matted, uncombed, and an uneven beard grew around his slack mouth. His whole body was rigid.
    He loomed over two people, a middle-aged man and woman, husband and wife probably, who lay in the middle of what passed for a living room—a plush sofa shoved up against one wall and a large TV in the opposite corner. They were both a little worn out and overweight, both wearing jeans and T-shirts—they matched the trailer, Kitty thought absently. They were trussed up like a holiday meal. That was the only way Kitty could think of it. Each had wrists and ankles bound fast in front of them with thin twine. Both were gagged with strips of cloth, so tightly their teeth were bared, their lips stretched back in grotesque smiles. Their eyes glared large and white with fear. Bloody marks shone on their heads, as if the killer had subdued them by hitting them with something. But they were alive, trembling, pressing themselves away from the killer even while bound.
    He’d started with her, slashing her arms, spilling blood everywhere. He held an eight-inch-long serrated knife, dull-looking, something that might rip like the teeth of an animal. It dripped blood onto the floor.
    The killer regarded Kitty and David.
    Wolf, the voice of wild instinct, spoke to Kitty: Can’t show fear, can’t show terror, then he’ll know he’s stronger and he’ll attack, he’ll kill. We must be stronger, we must dominate, we are alpha here.
    Wolf was right. Kitty wanted to scream, but she didn’t. Instead, she looked him in the eye. Glared. Bared her teeth a little. He was in the wrong here. He must be made to relent—to show his belly. Cow him before they had to fight it out.
    Beside her, David was doing the same. His fingers were curled, stiff, as if showing claws. For a moment, she worried. Much more of this, and he’d shift. Hell, they both might. And maybe that wouldn’t be so bad—no way could this guy escape from a couple of werewolves with full-on claws and teeth.
    The killer took a step back. He sensed something, obviously. The aggression, the challenge. The fact that these were a couple of monsters standing in front of him, no matter how harmless they might look. But he didn’t know how to read the signs. He didn’t know how to respond. A wolf would either return the challenge or back down—slumped shoulders, lowered gaze. Make himself small and helpless before them, to show that they were stronger.
    This guy twitched, feet shifting in place. His grip tightened and retightened around the handle of the knife. His gaze shifted between them, the door, his captives, the knife in his hand, and back. He didn’t know where to look, where to go, what to do. His eyes were wide, shocky, and his lips trembled.
    Then he asked a strange question.
    “What are you?”
    I’m your worst nightmare, Kitty wanted to mutter in a bad accent. But she didn’t. She wondered what he saw in them, though—two people with wolves staring out of